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47
at the nurseries until they went to school, leaving 308 who
were withdrawn before they were due to attend school. The
following figures show the periods of attendance of these
308 children:—
Less than 1 week 54 children
,, ,, 4 weeks 47 ,,
,, ,, 6 months 121 „
More than 6 months 86 ,,
308
By comparing these two sets of figures (of which the first set
is included in the second) it will be seen that the great majority
of early withdrawals (under four weeks) occurred during the
first year of the nurseries' existence.
With regard to the early withdrawal of children, which is
disappointing from an administrative point of view, it has been
the experience of your medical and nursing staff that the
mothers who submitted the most urgent appeals for the
immediate admission of their children were generally those
who withdrew their children in the shortest time after
admission.
Nursery Dietaries. In February, 1943, the Chief Medical
Officer, Ministry of Health, had occasion to address a letter
to Medical Officers of Health of Welfare Authorities drawing
attention to the ascertained fact that the nutritional condition,
particularly of children in the 1-2 age group, of nursery
children was not as good as it should be ; and this he considered
to be somewhat disturbing in view of the fact that extra
rations and special vitamins were available for these children.
Medical Officers were therefore advised to review the nursery
dietaries. In Leyton, at the time the nurseries were opened,
the question of adequate dietaries was considered very carefully
by Dr. Menzies and the Matrons. Since that time there
has been available for each child not only cod liver oil and
fruit juice daily, but suitable preparations containing iron
have been administered to each child who was considered to
require them. These facts regarding available dietaries should
be considered in association with the observations made by
Dr. Menzies at the end of this report.